Contemplations of a Phoenix
by gorgeousbowneyes
Summary: AU, tries to follow cannon. Voldemort never heard of the prophecy. Lily and James never died. Harry was never The Boy Who Lived. But Voldemort was practically destroyed, but not by Harry.
1. Prologue

_**Contemplations of a Phoenix**_

_Summary_: Voldemort never heard of the prophecy. Lily and James never died. Harry was never The Boy Who Lived. But Voldemort _was_ practically destroyed, but not by Harry. AU, but tries to follow cannon as much as possible.

**Prologue:**

Voldemort felt cooped up. He needed a kill. He hadn't been out for a while and the few scum bags he had killed were just left overs from the Death Eater's attacks. He desperately wanted fresh meat to attack, fresh unsuspecting people. He didn't care who. So he decided that he was going out. He was the Lord Voldemort, the greatest dark wizard the world had ever seen, and he wasn't going to worry about being caught now. Yes, he would go out and have himself a killing spree. He grabbed a cloak, for it was cold outside, as much as he wished he could be immune to the weather, some things still affected him. And that bothered him greatly. That would have to change in time, but for now, he just wanted to kill. He disapparated straight out.

When he appeared again, he was in front of a house that was quite quaint, with a bright glow coming out of the windows from the fire light. He advanced to the door and blasted it open, destroying the tranquillity of the neighbourhood. The family had been in a back room of the house, but heard their front door explode. The man rushed his wife upstairs to get their child, while he would ward off the intruder as best he could. Little did he know that he was to face Voldemort himself. When the man rounded the corner he immediately came face to face with the Dark Lord and found himself at the wrong end of his wand.

"Avada Kedavra!" hissed the intruder and a look of shock and recognition crossed the man's face as he realised this was Voldemort. His face changed to look panic stricken as he felt his life ebbing away and worried for his wife and child. Voldemort smiled with satisfaction as the man fell, dead, before his feet. He had forgotten how much fun this was, and looked forward to a night filled with deaths similar to this. He advanced around the corner, from where the man had come from, and found a stair case leading up to another level. He ascended it and went towards the only room with a light on. Silly woman, didn't she realise that the light was a dead give-away? He pushed the door open and found the woman bent over a polished wooden cot. She quickly turned to face him as she heard the door open.

"Please," she pleaded. "Don't hurt my child! Please, I'll do anything!"

"Would you be willing to die for it?" Voldemort taunted back.

"Yes! Yes, anything! I love her! Take me instead! Please!"

"Silly woman. Don't you know I would kill you both anyway? But since you're so _desperate_ to die for this stupid infant, I'll allow it. Avada Kedavra!" The woman screamed and fell to the floor. Voldemort advanced on the cot. Now for his favourite part, to kill the defenceless baby. He looked into the cot, down at a baby girl, who looked to be around a year old. She was lying on her side with her back to him. He smiled. This was like taking candy from a baby, or rather, just plain killing a baby. He raised his wand to utter the killing curse once more.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A green light shot out from his wand and hit the girl in the back above where her heart should be. But instead of penetrating the skin and flowing into her to kill her like the spell would normally do, the green light bounced back off her and hit Voldemort square in the head. Caught totally off guard, he felt his power drain, his body diminish, and all that was left was a ragged soul. He swept out of the house as fast as he could, to find a safe haven.

The baby girl was left lying on her side, crying from the sudden shock of the spell. On her back, on the left side, above her heart, glowed a fresh wound, in the shape of a lightning bolt scar. Moments later, an elderly man apparated into the room, half-moon glasses resting on his nose. The elderly man gathered the infant into his arms and tried to shush the terrified wailing of the little girl.

"Shhh, now, now, it's going to be all right, little Phoenix, you'll be OK," he consoled the little girl, trying to comfort, knowing she felt the loss of her parents even at the young stage of her life.

"You're safe now."

-

AN: OK, so this is the start of an idea I've had floating around in my head for the past couple of days. I know the whole idea of Harry not being the boy who lived has been soooo over done, but hopefully my take on it wont be too bad. So hope you like it, you can expect an update within two weeks. Also, please excuse my spelling of the Killing curse if it is wrong, as I couldn't be bothered to look it up and check. If anyone wasnts to review and tell me how it should be spelt, please do. Otherwise feel free to review for any reason you might have!


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One:**

Phoenix was lying awake in bed, pondering her years at Hogwarts. She had first found out that she was actually a witch when she was eleven, having received her Hogwarts letter at her aunt's and uncle's house, where she had lived her whole life due to the death of her parents. She had believed that they died in a car crash, only later to find out that they had actually been murdered by the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort. Her introduction into the wizarding world hadn't been as smooth and as she would have hoped, as she also found out that she was something of a legend. She had been the one to destroy Voldemort, a feat that she didn't remember, and the only proof that she actually did it being the lightning bolt scar on the left side of her back. Because of it's position, she attracted less attention in public because people could not see the scar, but when she was introduced to anyone, she saw the same reactions cross their face, time and time again. First, their face was shocked, next it turned to awe, and then they either turned into blithering idiots or they did everything they could to impress her. She hated it all. Why did the whole wizarding world have to know that she was Phoenix Turner? Why did they worship her so? It's not like she did anything special, she couldn't even remember it! All that registered was that her parents were dead, she was alive and had been forced to live with her only remaining relatives who treated her like scum.

It had been a relief to know that she wasn't doomed to a life with her aunt and uncle though. A new start had been opened up to her, even if everybody knew her name. In her first year of Hogwarts, she had been sorted into Gryffindor, and also discovered that although Voldemort was believed dead, he was still plotting to come back. She, along with her now best friend, Hermione Granger, had discovered a plot involving the of the time current Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrel, in league with Voldemort to steal the Philosopher's Stone. Hermione, herself, and two other friends (who were both males by the names of Ron Weasley and Harry Potter) and foiled their plans and the headmaster had destroyed the stone.

In her second year, the four had become good friends. Then, the Chamber of Secrets had opened and people were being petrified left, right and centre. Both Hermione and Ron had been petrified, although at different times, and her and Harry had found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, along with that year's Defence teacher, Professor Lockhart. She thought back at how they had discovered that both Harry and herself could speak Parseltounge. Harry apparently had natural abilities in the language, whereas she had received the power from Voldemort, Dumbledore had explained, and that she also had a connection with him, that some of his powers had transferred to her that night when she defeated him.

In her third year, a prophesy was made by their divination teacher to Harry, about a servant rejoining his master, and something else, but she couldn't exactly remember what. Ron's rat had turned out to be an ex-Death Eater, Peter Pettigrew, who had gone into hiding after Voldemort was presumed dead. The new Defence teacher was closely linked to Harry, being a friend of both his father and godfather, so the year was fun with him around. Harry's father, James Potter, and his godfather, Sirius Black, came to Hogwarts immediately by the request of Remus Lupin (the Defence teacher) when he identified Peter Pettigrew, one of their former friends. They attempted to murder him, as he had tried to had over other friends of theirs, the Longbottom's, to the Dark Lord. He had failed in the attempt, but later, another death eater returned and tourtured the Longbottoms to insanity to 'finish' the job. Their son, Neville was in her grade at Hogwarts, and they were fairly good friends, as he shared a dorm with Harry and Ron. When Pettigrew (or as he was known to his friends, Wormtail) was found, dementors had been summoned to take him to Azkaban, the wizarding prison. That's when she had found out that dementors brought back the memories of that night she had supposedly destroyed Voldemort.

The next year, her fourth in the wizarding world, The Triwizard Tournament was held at Hogwarts, with two sister schools joining them to compete. Three champions had been selected, one from each house, but something else, something surprising occurred. She was too young, the rules said so, and she didn't even try to enter the competition, but somehow, she had been selected to compete. As a fourth champion. Somehow she managed to get through the tasks, but at the end of the last task, something went horribly wrong. Her and the other Gryffindor champion were the first to reach the centre of the maze (the task set for the third and final challenge), and they agreed to take it together. It then transported them to a graveyard, where Lord Voldemort had planned his resurrection. He had killed Cedric, and captured Phoenix to use her blood in the potion to revive himself. They had duelled after that, and during this, Dumbledore, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Mad Eye Moody (the defence teacher that year) and other wizards she didn't know had apparated into the graveyard. They took on the other Death Eaters who had been there to witness the resurrection of their Lord, and James Potter was killed in the fight. Harry and his mother, Lily, had been devastated.

In their fifth year, Harry had blamed Phoenix for his father's death, and they had a huge fight and their friendship practically ended. The Ministry for Magic didn't believe that Voldemort was alive, and they used the Daily Prophet to ridicule both Phoenix and Dumbledore for claiming such and absurd thing. They placed a Ministry member in the school, at first as the Defence teacher, and then as more than that, with power to control everyone in the school. Her and Hermione had created a club to teach students the proper Defence skills they would need, as Umbridge (the Ministry member) was totally unqualified and didn't know a thing about actually performing spells. Phoenix and Harry had both taught the class, Harry having resignedly agreed to help out, considering the dire state of things. Later in the year, Phoenix had a vision that made her believe the people she had grown to think of as a family (the Weasleys, The Potters plus Sirius and Remus) were all in danger at the Ministry. She didn't know how to help but her and five other friends whisked away to the Ministry in London, only to find that it was a trap from Voldemort, as he wanted a Prophecy made apparently about her and Voldemort. He had only learned of it after he had been resurrected and believed it could help him to conquer the world. He didn't succeed in getting it, but he did manage to seriously weaken the Order of the Phoenix (ironically it wasn't named after her, nor was she named after the order, it was just a large coincidence) by the death of both Lily Potter and Sirius Black. Harry was now an orphan, just like her. The Weasleys of course made him come live with them, as Lupin couldn't offer him a steady home, with being a Werewolf and all, and he definitely didn't want to go to his muggle relatives. Unfortunately, this drove the rift between her and Harry even further, him blaming her even more. Why was his family dying around him? And why did it always have to be because of some kind of mess that Phoenix had gotten into? She wished that it didn't happen, that none of it happened. That she had never been the one to defeat Voldemort. Why couldn't it have been someone else? Later, Dumbledore had showed her the prophecy, revealing that it had been made to him. It had said : "_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..." _She had questioned why this was supposed to relate to her, as she wasn't a he, she hadn't been born at the end of July, and as far as she knew, her parents never faced the Dark Lord three times. Dumbledore had replied that not all aspects of a prophecy are fulfilled, and that the part that mattered was that the Dark Lord had marked her as his equal. By this she presumed her scar, the fact that he had marked her with the scar. This also meant that she was to be the one to kill Lord Voldemort once and for all.

Last year, a lot of things had happened. She had found out how Voldemort had survived the killing curse, that he had ripped his soul into seven pieces and made what is called Horcruxes, which are items that contain part of his soul. Because the soul that had been hit by the killing curse was only one of seven, he was able to stay alive. This meant that in order to destroy Voldemort, first the remaining five Horcruxes had to be destroyed. One was unknowingly destroyed by herself in her second year, the diary she had stabbed with the fang of a basilisk. Dumbledore had also destroyed one over the summer. That left three that she now had to find and destroy herself. The more distressing fact of last year was that Dumbledore had been murdered by their Potions master, Severus Snape, and had been helped by one of the Slytherins in her year, Draco Malfoy, who was also Harry's main enemy at school. It was a terrible loss, and the whole wizarding community mourned his loss.

Now, she was back for her last year at Hogwarts. She needed to learn all she could this year before she would have to go in search of those dammed Horcruxes. She would also work on researching and looking for them throughout the year, and Hermione had promised to help her with that. Ron and Harry had both drifted away from them, splitting the foursome into the two boys and the two girls. Harry no longer talked to Phoenix, but he sometimes talked to Hermione, and Ron was his best mate, so they talked all the time. For her it was opposite. Ron sometimes talked to her, Hermione all the time, as they were best friends, and Harry, well he never talked to her, as he still blamed her for his parents' and godfather's deaths.

She sighed and rolled over onto her side, revealing the lightning bolt scar on her left shoulder. It could be a pain sometimes, as it burned, depending on Voldemort's emotional state, and right now it was itching, indicating that he was probably annoyed. This had only recently started up again, as for a while, Dumbledore had said that Voldemort must have been aware of their connection, but now she was starting to think that Dumbledore had cast a spell to stop her from feeling what Voldemort was feeling, that was slowly fading now he was dead. She looked out past the golden bed-curtains and out the window. It was getting light out, soon it would be dawn and she really needed to get some sleep, as she had classes the next day, but her mind was too busy with thoughts. She didn't know how she was going to manage to kill Voldemort. It was just so great a task and she didn't think she could handle it. And then their was the problem of Harry. She couldn't stand the death stares he sent her at times, when he was feeling particularly angry. He blamed her so much he didn't have to say a word, she could feel it emanating from him. She wanted to help, she wanted to fix it, she couldn't stand seeing him hurting. She wanted to help him ease the pain, wanted to be a shoulder to cry on, as she knew what it was like to live without parents, to live without any real family connections.

She sighed again and rolled back onto her back, staring at the gold canopy of her bed. In the few times her and Hermione had been into the boy's dorms, she has seen that their bed spreads and curtains had been a maroon colour, and thought for a little how the girls had gold and they boys had maroon, the Gryffindor colours. She wondered if the other houses were like that, with the two colours for the two different sexes in the dorms. She should ask Hermione one day, as she was the only person who had read Hogwarts: a History, and would probably know, being Head Girl and all. Although she had been offered separate dormitories, she had refused, preferring to stay with her friends that she had spent all of her years at Hogwarts living with. The other three girls in their dorm, besides herself and Hermione were Lavender Brown, Pavarti Patil and Ginny Weasley. Although Ginny was in a younger grade, their were too many girls in the grade below their's by one and Ginny had offered to sleep in their dorm, which had a spare bed. Although she had her close friends in her own year, Ginny had become quite close to Phoenix and Hermione. Pavarti and Lavender tended to stick to themselves, after all, they had different views on many things than the other three, and that suited her fine. Lavender had gone out with Ron in their sixth year, and that had created quite a rift between her and Hermione, as everyone knew Hermione and Ron were meant for each other, even if they themselves didn't know it yet. She laughed at the bet she had made with Harry about how long before they realised, but then grew sobre again, as she realised she was no longer friends with him. Oh well, friend or no friend, she was still going to cash in on that bet if it turned out she won and they got together by Christmas this year.

She finally drifted off to sleep as the birds around the castle started to sing their little hearts out to the dawn, thinking about how to fix things with Harry.

-

The next day, she woke from Hermione shaking her shoulders roughly.

"C'mon, you've overslept! What time did you get to sleep last night anyway?" Hermione said as she rushed about, pulling out uniform robes for Phoenix.

"Around dawn," she mumbled back.

"Jeez, no wondered you slept late! And I bet you weren't even spending the time to study!" Hermione exclaimed.

"'Mione, it's only the second week back at school, why spend extra time studying if I don't have to?" Phoenix replied.

"Honestly, you're just like Ron and Harry, always putting it of to the last moment!" Phoenix looked away at Hermione's comment. "Oh, right sorry, touchy subject. C'mon, get dressed! I'm hungry and as it is we'll be late for Charms if you don't hurry!" Hermione bustled out of the room to find where she left her quill the night before. Phoenix resigned herself to get ready for the day, preparing herself to face those death stares once more.

-

AN: Sorry for the very long, boring descriptive start to this chapter, but I needed to get the background bit out of the way for the story to progress. Thanks for the reviews! Hopefully you will all have more to say this time, but even short reviews are very welcome! I absolutely love reviews! Also, sorry if I spelt any names, terms or anything else from the Potterverse wrong, as this is unbeta'ed and I'm too laszt atm to re-read and check, OK? Expect an update in one - two weeks. By for now!


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